Emil Fischer Center, Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Henkestraße 9, 91054, Erlangen, Germany.
Department of Sensory Analytics, Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging, Giggenhauser Straße 35, 85354, Freising, Germany.
Anal Bioanal Chem. 2017 Sep;409(22):5249-5258. doi: 10.1007/s00216-017-0469-5. Epub 2017 Jul 11.
Most children's toys on the market are primarily made out of plastic and other complex composite materials. Consumer complaints about offensive odors or irritating effects associated with toy products have increased in recent years. One example is the strongly perceivable negative odor reported for a particular series of toy swords. Characterizing the presence of contaminants, including those that have the potential to be deleterious to health, in such products is a significant analytical challenge due to the high baseline abundance of chemical constituents of the materials used in the products. In the present study, the nature of offensive odorants associated with toy sword products was examined by gas chromatography (GC). After initial sensory evaluations, the volatile compounds from the toy products were recovered using solvent extraction and solvent-assisted flavor evaporation. The extracts were analyzed using GC-olfactometry (GC-O) and two-dimensional GC-O coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-GC-MS/O). A total of 26 odor-active compounds, including aromatic hydrocarbons and phenols, were identified among numerous non-odorous volatile by-products. These substances also included polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which were analyzed by GC-MS. Representative substances were naphthalene and 1,2-dihydronaphthalene that exhibited moldy, mothball-like odor impressions, and phenol derivatives with leather-like, phenolic, horse-stable-like smells. The odorants detected correlated with the assigned attributes from the sensory analyses. This study clearly shows that the detection and identification of such odorous contaminants can provide key indications of potentially harmful yet unknown substances in everyday products such as toys. Graphical abstract ᅟ.
市面上大多数儿童玩具主要由塑料和其他复杂复合材料制成。近年来，消费者对玩具产品散发异味或产生刺激性影响的投诉有所增加。例如，某一系列玩具剑报告了强烈感知到的负面气味。由于产品中使用的材料的化学成分基线含量高，因此要对这些产品中的污染物进行特征描述，包括那些有可能对健康有害的污染物，这是一个重大的分析挑战。在本研究中，通过气相色谱法（GC）研究了与玩具剑产品相关的恶臭物质的性质。在初步感官评估后，使用溶剂萃取和溶剂辅助风味蒸发从玩具产品中回收挥发性化合物。使用 GC-嗅觉测量法（GC-O）和二维 GC-O 与质谱联用（GC-GC-MS/O）对提取物进行分析。在许多无嗅的挥发性副产物中，共鉴定出 26 种有气味活性的化合物，包括芳烃和酚类。这些物质还包括多环芳烃，通过 GC-MS 进行了分析。代表性物质为萘和 1,2-二氢萘，它们表现出发霉、樟脑丸般的气味印象，以及具有皮革味、酚味、马厩味的酚类衍生物。检测到的气味与感官分析中分配的属性相关。本研究清楚地表明，对这些有气味的污染物的检测和识别可以为玩具等日常产品中潜在有害但未知物质提供关键指示。
